Lydia Hamilton Smith

Lydia Hamilton Smith (14 February 1813-14 February 1884) was the long-time housekeeper and mistress of Thaddeus Stevens.

Biography
Lydia Hamilton Smith was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1813, the daughter of an Irish father and a biracial mother. She married a free black man and had two sons before separating, and, in 1847, she became the housekeeper to prominent lawyer and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens. Stevens' neighbors considered Smith to be his common law wife, as the two were also lovers. She was at Stevens' bedside when he died in 1868, and she purchased his home with the money that he had left to her in his will. She operated a boarding house and a real estate business until her death in 1884.